In
the News
7/24/ 2008, The
Maine Switch
Evergreen
Cemetery – A gift for the ages
By Catherine Gentile, Portland Trails volunteer
A stroll through Evergreen Cemetery provides
an opportunity to wander along pebbled pathways
far from the rush of traffic. Enter through
the gates on Stevens Avenue and experience
the draw of history's whispered lessons.
From the rumblings of the pre-civil war era
to those of the twentieth century, markers
as diverse as the lives they memorialize
coalesce into silent granite neighborhoods
bound by time and circumstance. Beneath the
canopy of towering trees – deciduous and
evergreen – is the elegant sense of space
seldom found on city sidewalks.
Within this sanctuary, weatherworn headstones
and lichen-bordered monuments dip and rise
on two hundred and ninety-seven acres of
gentle hills. If you are a map aficionado,
you can get one from the cemetery office
between 7:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.. Or follow
the dragonflies down the sloping trails toward
the cemetery's edge. There, gathered in and
around a necklace of four ponds are ducks,
seagulls, and so many birds that the Audubon
Society supplies observational checklists.
On your way back, visit the Samuel Wilde
Memorial Chapel, a superb example of English-Gothic
architecture.
Surrounded by quiet grandeur, this walking
trail is a gift, a sampling of the combined
geniuses of nature and nineteenth century
landscape art. Add the talents of countless
architectural stonemasons and a healthy dash
of history and return to Stevens Avenue refreshed
from a visit to another age.
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